Europe 1950 focus of exhibition at Pierpont Commons

Europe 1950, an exhibition of photographs by Cecil Eby, professor emeritus of English language and literature, will be on display through Feb. 2 at the Pierpont Commons Gallery Wall. The post-World War II photographs capture Ebys vision of the real Europe, before mass tourism.

After graduating from college, Eby set off for Europe aboard the Queen Mary with a $50 bellows camera called the Speedex and a dozen rolls of film. When I returned to the United States late in 1950, I turned my aunts bathroom into a darkroom, made contact prints of my photos . . . and proceeded to forget about them, Eby writes. Then in 1997, I came across my old album and was immediately struck by the fact that the Europe I had put on film no longer existed.

Changes in transportation constitute the greatest difference, Eby notes, between the Europe of today and that of 1950. The Great Depression and World War II slowed progress. Europe existed in a kind of time warp that evoked an even earlier period of time, Eby comments.